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Music Censorship

Although is clearly states in the first amendment that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people to peaceably assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances," censorship in America still exists in a big way. "Music censorship is the term used to describe the act of editing, altering, or preventing the listener from hearing the music as the artist created it in order to either deny certain information or to act as a moral gatekeeper of potentially harmful material" (http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~barndollar/courses/spring98/students/fabfive/index.html). The Censorship of music in the United Stated is documented as far back as 1954, when "Michigan congresswoman Ruth Thompson introduces a bill in the House that would ban mailing of any pornographic recording, punishable by five years imprisonment and a $ 5,000 fine" (http://ericnuzum.com/banned/fifties.html). Even Elvis Aaron Presley, The King of rock-n-roll' was once thought of as obscene. In 1957, when he appeared on the Ed Sullivan show for the third time, the cameramen were told to only film him from the waist up. "Elvis's dancing was considered lewd" (http://ericnuzum.com/banned/fifties.html). In 1964, "Indiana Governor Matthew Welsh asks the State Broadcasters Association to ban the song Louie, Louie' by the Kingsmen because he considers it to be pornographic." (http://ericnuzum.com/banned/fifties.html). This trend has continued all the way up to the nineties, and I'm sure it won't stop any time soon. In the past ten years especially, music has been under attack by many law makers, prosecutors and critics of morality and good taste. One attack on this freedom comes from parental advisory stickers. These stickers are used as a form of censorship against an artist and their lyrics. If a label will produce an album, I don't think there should be...

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...Musiccensorship has been an extremely controversial issue in American society for over fifty years. Various musicians have had their music shelved and banned from videos and the radio just because some people believe these songs contain explicit lyrics. Although "inappropriate" lyrics can be considered as the major cause of censoring music, becoming the defense of censorship-advocator's argument, people who are against censorship may have better argument.
In this controversy, many people who are for censorship say that there should be censorship in music because lyrics from songs are telling youth that participating in illegal actions such as murder, rape or drugs is acceptable. For years, various government departments have passed, or have tried to pass, bills to strengthen musiccensorship. Censors believe these "explicit" content should be banned because they jeopardize the society.
However, these censors maybe ignore our basic right: freedom of speech, which states Congress shall make no law representing an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or of the right of the people peaceable to assemble, and petition the government for a redress of grievances (Nuzum). In the United States, the First Amendment is aimed to prevent the...

...Censorship and Morality in MusicMusicCensorship and Preserving Morality in Music
Introduction
For thousands of years, music has been a medium in which people have been able to communicate and express emotion amongst each other, and to the rest of the world. Music is one of the major ways in which cultures are able to distinguish themselves from others, and help allow people of this world to socially accept what they may not be so familiar with. With that said, many people differ on the extent to which musical content should be regulated. Just as most political views take on a “liberal” or “conservative” display tag, musiccensorship does too in a way. One can choose whether or not he or she would like more or less regulation of musical content. Intuitively, one would think that someone who preferred more regulation of musical content to be liberal, and someone who preferred less regulation to be conservative. However, if musical censorship did have to have a political ideology tag pinned to it, it would be just the opposite. Given that it is just an innocent generalization, different people have different opinions, and none of this is 100% concrete, the liberal ideology would tend to coincide with less censorship with more promotion of freedom of speech. This would make the conservative ideology favor...

...English
The Destruction of Free Speech In Music
On January 7th, 1957, producers of the Ed Sullivan Show instructed cameramen to show Elvis Presley only from the waist up because many viewers felt his dancing was obscene. Elvis Presley’s dance moves were sexually suggestive and he even got the nickname Elvis the Pelvis. The king of Rock n Roll would dance around the stage swinging his hips and thrusting his waist to the music. This made all the girls go wild for him but many found his dancing to be offensive and too much. Throughout history there have been people who oppose artists’ viewpoints, how these artists choose to express themselves. Musiccensorship restricts artists and not letting them express themselves through their music is wrong Musiccensorship is wrong because it damages the entire art world by limiting the ability of artists to express their viewpoints. Artist should be protected by the first amendment along with the rest of the U.S. citizens. Musiccensorship should not be accepted by the public and allowed to destroy this country’s freedom and the artist’s freedom.
“All censorship exists to prevent one from challenging current conceptions and existing institutions. All progress is initiated by challenging current conceptions and executed by supplanting existing institutions. Consequently the first...

...discuss the arguments for the need for censorship in a society. Firstly, it argues that censorship maintains security by providing people with privacy and protects them against illegal material. The essay moves on to discuss social aspects that censorship benefits to a society, such as maintaining the culture of a society and conserving religious values. Finally, the essay claims that politics has need for censorship as it protects the innocence of members in a society and prevents public outbursts. The essay will conclude by explaining the importance of having censorship in societies, especially in modern societies.
(Approx. 99 words)
Arguments for the need for censorship in society
There is an importance, especially in modern societies, for the need of supervision and control of information and ideas that should or should not be made available to the public. One way in which information can be supervised and controlled is by censorship. In a society there can be arguments both for and against the need for censorship. Although most people believe in the importance of freedom of speech, there is also an importance to understand the advantages of having control of what is being said of written in a society. The arguments for the need of censorship in a society are mainly the...

...Censorship in Music
When listening to the radio, most people come across a song that has been changed from its original version, whether certain words are beeped out, or a string of lyrics are replaced altogether. This is censorship, and it is very common on the radio. It is also very controversial. People don’t agree what should be censored or if anything should be censored at all. However, we believe that censorship is a good thing. Censorship allows offensive music to be altered so that it is not offensive anymore. It also prevents younger children from being exposed to harsh and inappropriate content in a society where access to music is growing. The positives of censorship outweigh the negatives by far.
What is Censorship?
Censorship is the suppression of speech or other public communication that may be considered harmful or sensitive to people as determined by a government or the media. Censorship of music is when free access to musical works is banned. This censorship may come from a series of motivations such as moral, political, religious, or obscenity reasons. Musiccensorship first began in the early 1940’s when rock and R&amp;B began to challenge traditional values. “Sex and drugs were no longer hidden and secretive but something to be exposed and...

...Censorship in music is a topic that has brought about much controversy in the past two decades. There have been many different arguments on the topic, however the question still remains as if it should be censored or it should not be censored. Before one can form an opinion on this, one must hear both sides of the argument. Some believe that music should be censored so all audiences can hear it without it containing any controversial lyrics. Others believe it should not be censored and musical artists should be able to speak, sing, rap, or rhyme freely without anyone censoring them. Music is a way to express yourself freely, and should be kept that way.
Society in general has always had its “faults and glitches, some of which were remedied, others which will never be solved.” Media, more specifically in the arts, have never been perfect and have always taken criticism throughout the history of time. In the last few decades or so though, censorship and music has gone hand in hand, one not being able to exist without the other. When a problem occurs in society where music is involved, the masses immediately look for a scapegoat in order to deter the blame from a rational explanation (Lombardi).
There are many organizations in which their primary goal is to use music as the scapegoat for society's problems. People like Tipper Gore, wife to Vice President Al Gore,...

...Josh Opening Statement-
Boris Opening Statement- Censorship in music is a topic that has brought about much controversy in the past two decades. There have been many different arguments on the topic, however the question still remains as if it should be censored or it should not be censored. Before you can form an opinion on this, you must hear both sides of the argument on this much-debated topic. Some people believe that music should be censored so all audiences can hear it without it containing any controversial lyrics. Others believe it should not be censored and musical artists should be able to speak, sing, rap, or rhyme freely without anyone censoring them. Preventing speech is a clear violation of the First Amendment. When you really think about it, it is a violation of the First Amendment, which says: "Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech or of the press". The First Amendment guarantees the right to freedom of speech, and censorship is violating peoples' rights to say whatever they want to say. It is sometimes difficult to understand when a child gets punished for using foul language meanwhile the child's parents have the right to criticize and petition the government whenever they feel the need to do so. Many musical artists feel that when they are forced to change lyrics their rights are being violated. In some artists' songs they like to express their feelings towards...

...First , I want to talk about what decides if music should be censored and this includes parents and corporations. The parents started to listen to their childrens music and listened to the lyrics of the songs. Some of the parents liked the lyrics and music that their children listened to, while others did not. The parents that did not like the lyrics of the songs their children listened to decided to create a group the Parents Music Resource Center, or the PMRC for short. The PMRC was established by parents to regulate musiccensorship in 1984 and stated that their goal was to increase parental control over the access of access of children to music deemed to be violent, have drug use or be sexual via labeling albums with Parental Advisory stickers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parents_Music_Resource_Center). The corporations were effected by the parents influences majorly. The conflicted parents demanded that the record companies put labels on their products, so their children would not be introduced to this vulgarity. The record companies and the parents fought back and forth until the parents involved legislators which stopped the record companies in their place. This was a revolution in music history and changed the music industry forever.
Next, I want to talk about who regulates the censorship of music and this...